Great garden gift No. 5, and more prizes!

If membership is idea No. 4, then this is idea No. 5. (Hey, kudos to you if you’ve figured out that my life is going too fast right now to count.)

But first off, we’ve got a winner: Commenter Sue Ballou claims the assortment of Botanical Interest seeds, with her gift suggestion of one of Colorado State Entomologist Whitney Cranshaw’s great bug books. Hooray, Sue! Another sender-inner reminds that the Denver Botanic Gardens’ Blossoms of Lights (in Denver) and Trail of Lights (at Chatfield) shows are going strong and are extra pretty with snow on the ground. Both run only through Jan. 3, so make plans now.

The next prize for a gift-idea genius is the beautiful book “Right Rose, Right Place,” by Peter Schneider. If the taxonomy of types of roses has always eluded you, this picture-packed hardback sorts it all out for you, along with luscious photos and cultivation and pruning information. The next time you stumble on a rose sale, you’ll know your Bourbons from your Damasks and your shrubs from your grandifloras. That is, if you send me your ideas before next Friday, Dec. 18.

Garden gift idea No. 5: Bling. No, not the kind of rings and baubles you buy at the department store — GARDEN bling. Benches and birdbaths and garden art. I’ve got my share of non-plant garden stuff, but my favorites take advantage of Colorado’s best energy source: the sun. I love my solar birdbath fountain to distraction, even though the fountain part of it long ago croaked due to my inability to bring stuff in when it freezes. If the gardener on your gift list has that flaw, be sure to get them something you know they’ll love even when/if its water-moving parts go the way of all things mechanical.

It’s a gift in itself just to set out some water and food for the birds on these frosty days when all their food sources are buried or dormant. (If you’ve got old sunflower heads with seeds still in them, how about bundling them up with a nice red bow and calling it holiday decoration? This is on my mind this winter more than ever, since this spring, my flowering crabapple didn’t, and so there’s no fruit on the tree for those birds who stayed. If a birdbath or feeder is beautiful, it qualifies as bling. Edibles are bling you can’t get tired of, because the birds will see to it that it goes away.

If you’re pressed for time, you can find lots of crafters selling birdseed ornaments on etsy.com. But if you want to show the love three ways — your gift recipient, the birds and the local economy — stop in at your LGC, or local garden center, and check out their supply of bird accoutrements first. Winter can be a tough season for not just birds, but local businesses, especially after weather like we’ve had last week, and you might find an unexpected sale.

So you, with the list: Put down the mouse, step away from the computer, and get out there this weekend before the crowds. Google your garden center’s website and check for holiday hours. Stop at your fave indie coffeehouse for a seasonal java, and go suck up some nice humid oxygen among the plants.

That, my leaf-loving friends, qualifies as a gift to yourself. And if you garden, you’ve earned it.

Susan Clotfelter has always played in the dirt, but got dragged into gardening as an obsession when she reclaimed her hell corner: a weed-infested patch of clay inhabited by one tough, lonely lilac and a thicket of weeds. Along with training as a Colorado State University Extension Master Gardener volunteer, she dug deeper with beds of herbs and lettuce at her home and rows of vegetables wherever she could borrow land. She writes for The Denver Post and other publications and appears on community radio.

Julie's passion for gardening began in spring of 2000 when she bought a fixer-upper in Denver's Park Hill neighborhood, and realized that the landsape was in desperate need of some TLC. During the drought of 2003, she decided to give up on bluegrass and xeriscape her front yard. She wrote about the journey in the Rocky Mountain News, in a series called Mud, Sweat & Tears: A Xeriscape story. Julie is an avid veggie gardener as well as a seasoned water gardener.